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Thanks, Bill. By the way, where did you get your really good spark plug wires I've read about before?

I hate to admit it but I got my MSD wires from Hervey. Drew also purchased his from Hervey. I don't have the tools to make my own wires.

Rest assured, we have a backup of Farrar's car blog and it will be restored in the near future. (Steve Rice - March 2016)
Rest assured, we have a backup of Shep's posts and all of them will be restored in the near future. (Steve Rice - March 2017)

All you need is a vise. MSD provides a crimping tool that you close with the jaws of the vise. Also need a pair of wire cutters, a pair of needle nose pliers, and a razor blade (crimping tool has a stripper built in that you use with the razor blade).

I like to make my own spark plug wires because each wire is custom length. MSD doesn't make ready made wiresets for applications such as my 6 cylinder Ford trucks:

On my DeLorean I was able to use 90 degree terminals for the driver side and straight terminals for the passenger side (distributor cap is already angled 45 degrees towards the passenger side). This makes a much neater wire run and prevents the passenger side wires bending back upon themselves (wouldn't work with K-Jet on top of course):

You want MSD wires because they are made of real wire. Carbon fiber wires are made of a fiberous carbon mixture that eventually fatigue breaks (I used to call them carbon impregnated string, but that is incorrect -- the fibers are not contiguous). On the school bus engine that my church's Bus Killer burned up there are still 8 wires running from what once was a distributor cap to the spark plugs. Insulation jackets are of course long gone, but the wire core is still there.

Speaking of insulation jackets: you do know that wire size refers to the OD of the jacket, not the conductive core inside?

That price isn't far removed from Jeg's price for a universal set ($89.95, free shipping). Of course a universal set gives you two extra terminals & wires, and the wires you do use are long enough to get a second DeLorean out of them.

Among those of use with exposed distributors, would there be any interest in MSD plug wires with straight terminals on the passenger side? I'd be happy to make them for materials cost alone. I'm guessing I could make passenger side for $20-25, and a complete set around $50. Only limitation is the PRV plug boots -- I'd need to get the old ones back as reusable cores (just like angle drive nuts).

Edit: Amazon sells a Delco set of PRV wires for $31. If people don't mind paying $5 per plug boot I can source new ones.

Edit Edit: Amazon sells Wells QW660 wiresets for $19, and they are supposed to xRef to Bosch 9095 (standard PRV), so that would bring new plug boots down to $3.17 per.

Remember that the plug gap acts as a rudimentary voltage regulator -- increasing the gap increases the amount of voltage necessary to jump it, decreasing the gap decreases the amount of voltage necessary to jump it.

Note also that a larger plug gap creates a larger flame front (more of the cylinder charge is exposed to the spark). Imagine starting a fireplace fire not only with a larger match, but with the newspaper lit in two corners rather than just one.

Reference in another thread to some of the online community's better known pontificators and prevaricators reminded me of old arguments against HEI: no one has ever argued that HEI was harmful or detrimental -- only that it was unnecessary (which I disagree with BTW).

Despite the fact that high winding coils such as Pertronix cost *LESS* than Bosch blue coils, one owner even argued that HEI was expensive snake oil.

For the cost of a $35 coil, my opinion is: just try it. If you don't like it you can always close the plug gap back up and go right back to where you were before.